Psalm Zero are a new project from New York City, comprised of Castevet’s Andrew Hock on guitars, programming and brutal vocals, and clean vocalist / bass player / synth wizard Charlie Looker, known from recently disbanded alternative Heavy Rock act Extra Life.
With Force My Hand, the duo releases its first record, which consists of two tracks. The title track (5:24) brings a mixture of Godflesh / Pitch Shifter / Scorn / Big Black-alike dissonance (from instrumental point of ‘view’) with rather special vocal features: tortured Black / Hardcore grunts at the one hand, and melodic, almost New Wavian voices at the other (cf. both members’ other main bands). It certainly is unusual to hear such a cacophonous interplay (both vocal arrangements, and the compositional instrumentation), and it isn’t that easy to digest, but it certainly is unique and attractive.
The B-side of this EP features Willpower, a cover of Today Is The Day. This acoustic piece isn’t but a filler, I think, though warm and lovely, but it has no value. So, I’ll go for the title song, Force My Hand, which is quite a unique piece of aural Art, and I wonder if a potential lengthier record will come with comparable fairness. If so, I will be honoured to review more of this stuff.